Quote Originally Posted by 'Mercurio',index.php?page=Thread&postID=69692#post 69692

Hmm... I hadn't tried Heroic Strike as an aggro builder - I figured devastatex2 was better than 1 devastate and 1 heroic strike. Perhaps I ought to not be using a cooldown on thunder clap - it may just not generate enough aggro (even though it is hitting all four mobs at once) in place of one more devastate.

The other thing that is tough in my setup is that my DPS is assisting my tank for targets, so the more I tab around to generate aggro on multiple mobs the longer it will take for anything to die, which means the more healing my tank will need, which means the better the chances that my healer will pull aggro from at least one mob before the end of the fight. With my pally tanking I can just concentrate all my DPS on one mob initially, bringing one down quick and simplifying the fight.
Heroic strike is an on next auto-attack swing ability, whereas devastate is an instant attack. They are 2 seperate cooldowns. Furthermore, cleave has an innate built in hate bonus that is almost equal to that of heroic strike's built in hate bonus. Improved cleave gives even more damage which increases hate even more. On top of that, cleave will hit 2 mobs at one time.

Improved thunderclap in defensive stance will generate aggro equivalent to 1 devastate per each mob that it hits. If you hit 4 mobs with thunderclap, each one of those mobs will now have a devastate worth of aggro on it.

Tab devastating is a painful and awful way to go with tanking multiple mobs with a warrior. Create a mouseover devastate/sunder macro and things become much better. I firmly believe any pulls that have 4 mobs or less - the warrior is a much better tank than a paladin. A warrior can very efficiently and easily handle up to 4 mobs at one time without much of a problem with aggro. Within the first 5 seconds of the initial pull, you should with ease be able to land 2 thunderclaps, 3 cleaves, and 3 devastates. At this point you shouldnt lose aggro to heals or damage.

I would disagree with you and say that a warrior is a better multi-box tank than a paladin, but there is a lot of anti-warrior bias around here. Thunderclap reduces a mob's attack speed by 20%, and improved demo shout decreases a mob's attack power by around 400. You just plain need a lot less healing as a warrior when these abilities are active. I've cleared almost every heroic in the game with no issues using a warrior tank in my multi-box setup.